The Tower is a complex, almost paradoxical card. Construction cannot come without destruction. A bit of an ego is healthy, but flying too close to the sun may lead to a crash. Following The Devil, It’s a card that can appear when we break our equilibrium. Only one factor needs to change to throw off everything. One strike of lightning can tear down everything we’ve built.
Today we’ll cover The Tower and the lessons we can learn from it.
The Tower Archetype: Destruction and Upheaval
Key Qualities: Destruction is becoming of The Tower. It represents a failure to launch. When our pride overwhelms our logic and empathy, divine intervention can strike our ego down in an instant. Sudden and forced change is foretold within the imagery of The Tower. The best part? You get to choose how to rebuild.
What It Represents: It’s the artistic rendition of loss—a visualization of a losing battle. In The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, A.E. Waite calls this card the “Tower of Babel.” In this biblical tale, one cohesive language unifies the people. When God sees the attempt to memorialize their strength, He scatters them across the Earth. Like this parable, we can see the figures of this card falling to the Earth when approaching the top.
We can also recall the story of Icarus. In this Greek myth, young Icarus set out to build a pair of wings so he could escape Crete. Using beeswax and feathers, Daedalus warned him to keep his flight within a safe range. Icarus flew too close to the sun, where his wings perished, and he fell into the sea below.
The Tower Across Decks
Tarot de Marseilles
Features water beneath The Tower, evoking the myth of Icarus and the emotional weight of a great fall.
The lightning bolt is present, striking with force, but the imagery is less catastrophic than modern decks.
The presence of water hints at purification and emotional rebirth after upheaval.
Rider-Waite-Smith
The Tower is completely ablaze, with flames engulfing the structure in a vivid portrayal of chaos.
Two figures tumble through the air, symbolizing a loss of stability and control.
The absence of visible ground heightens the sense of uncertainty and complete upheaval.
The wind blows the crown off the top of The Tower, signifying the fall of false pride or structures of power.
Symbolism
Key Symbols in the Card:
- Tower: The Tower can be anything we value, such as a relationship or career. We’ve poured countless resources into The Tower. It is a manifestation of hard work. With a shaky foundation, it’s not as stable as it seems. Overconfidence or unchecked ambition can cause this instability.
- Figures Falling: The figures falling out of The Tower can represent us, and anyone that may fall with us. It could be a direct representation of Daedalus and Icarus. It suggests that people share suffering, which can lead to deeper bonds. It can also represent a loss of control.
- Lightning Bolt: People can see the lightning bolt as a sudden epiphany or an abrupt change. Realizing something soul-shattering can lead to a tower moment, with all we’ve built crashing down around us. We can also see the bolt as an abrupt change caused by divine intervention. It’s the loss of a job, leading to unemployment and homelessness. Drastic, devastating change has a resonance with The Tower.
- Crown: The crown atop The Tower can symbolize our crown chakra. It also represents our ego. As the lightning strikes the crown, a shockwave of destruction cascades down to the root.
The Tower Takeaways
When looking beneath the surface, The Tower tells a message of renewal. Think about a hurricane. A storm transforms into a catastrophe. After the winds tear down the town, the community becomes closer than ever before. With relief efforts and fundraisers, a new foundation is in the works.
After a wildfire, the brush has a chance to renew itself. It can have tragic impacts on the environment, but the circumstances make it inevitable. We can’t choose to avoid it, and we can prevent it as much as possible, but abrupt change is part of life.
When thinking of The Tower, shadow work comes to mind. It’s a total tower moment, coming to terms with your innate behaviors. Or, The Tower can manifest as a car crash, for example. In this case, it may have been time for a new car. Without the accident, you would be stuck with a vehicle that hinders your success. This is one way to view it, though sometimes change happens for the sake of change. With no rhyme or reason, our worldviews can flip upside down, like the Hanged Man.
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